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Description

Film Music: A History explains the development of film music by considering large-scale aesthetic trends and structural developments alongside socioeconomic, technological, cultural, and philosophical circumstances.

The book’s four large parts are given over to Music and the "Silent" Film (1894--1927), Music and the Early Sound Film (1895--1933), Music in the "Classical-Style" Hollywood Film (1933--1960), and Film Music in the Post-Classic Period (1958--2008). Whereas most treatments of the subject are simply chronicles of "great film scores" and their composers, this book offers a genuine history of film music in terms of societal changes and technological and economic developments within the film industry. Instead of celebrating film-music masterpieces, it deals—logically and thoroughly—with the complex ‘machine’ whose smooth running allowed those occasional masterpieces to happen and whose periodic adjustments prompted the large-scale twists and turns in film music’s path.

Contents

Part One: Music and the "Silent" Film (1894–1927)

Chapter One: Origins, 1894–1905

Chapter Two: The Nickelodeon, 1905–1915

Chapter Three: Feature Films, 1915–1927

Part Two: ‘Classic’ Film Music (1927–1950)

Chapter Four: The Coming of Sound (1927–1929)

transition: Edison’s ideas

Early technologies (pre-1927) (Edison, De Forester, etc.)

Anticipations of a great future (Carl Van Vechten, George Antheil, etc.)

Problems of amplification, synchronization

Vitaphone: "Don Juan," "The Jazz Singer," etc.

Other systems and their costs, usefulness, adaptations, etc.

The immediate effect on the industry (cite numbers of installations, but also note persistence of ‘silent’ films in Japan, etc.)

transition: the lines/scene from 1953 "Singin’ in the Rain" ???

Chapter Five: Early Sound Films (1929–1933)

transition: the original "Singin’ in the Rain’

The fad for musicals (cite the numbers)

"Steamboat Willie" (the Disney innovations)

anti-musical, pro-musical industry shifts ca. 1931 (draw from all the extra research done for the Gershwin article in JAMS)

Approaches/aesthetics: wall-to-wall music vs. no music at all vs. only diegetic music (mention the various approaches in USSR, England, France, Germany, Italy, etc.)

Early commentary in the trade press (on sound in general, on musicals, on music, on ‘theme songs’)

transition: negative commentary on "theme songs"

Chapter Six: Music in the Classical-Style Hollywood Film (1933–1950)

transition: the reference to ‘theme song’ in "King Kong"

Max Steiner and "King Kong," "The Informer" (biographical info; earlier efforts) (info on how the "KK" score came about)

Definitions of "classical" style (cite Gorbman, Kalinak, Bordwell, Flinn, etc.); then offer a better definition/discussion of the idea of the ‘classical’ film; lead up to the idea of ‘classical’ = standardization

The sci-fi genre and electronic music ("Forbidden Planet," "Them!", "The Day the Earth Stood Still" and many more) (but back up and deal with "Spellbound" (1945), "The Lost Weekend" (1945) and other theremin scores …)

Best-selling songs ("High Noon" (1952); Henry Mancini …)

Jazzy scores like "On the Waterfront" (1954), "Baby Doll" (1956), "Anatomy of a Murder" (1959), "The Man with the Golden Arm" (1955)

transition: budget considerations vs. a need to compete with television

Chapter Eight: Eclecticism (1960–1980)

transition: restrictions = opportunity ???

big themes, big songs: "Dr. No" (1962) (certainly this features a "big" song in the main titles …); "Born Free" (1966), "Lawrence of Arabia" (1962), "The Way We Were" (1973) (the first film to feature a "big" song in the end credits????)

rebirth of the classic-style score: "Star Wars" (1977), "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" (1977), "Superman" (1978), "Raiders of the Lost Ark" (1981), "E.T. – the Extraterrestrial" (1982) [of course, these are all by John Williams; what about the other composers who jumped on the neo-classic bandwagon?]

issues: the compilation score, the re-birth of the classic-style score

On the one hand, films like "Harry Potter" and "Lord of the Rings" suggest a return to tradition

On the other hand, things, like "Moulin Rouge" (2001), "Run, Lola, Run" (1998), "Kill Bill" (2003) suggest an embrace of the "postmodern condition" by the film audience (at least, by the younger members thereof)

Author Bio

James Wierzbicki is a musicologist who teaches at the University of Michigan and serves as executive editor of the American Musicological Society's Music of the United States of America series of scholarly editions. His current research focuses on twentieth-century music in general and film music and electronic music in particular.

Related Subjects

Name: Film Music: A History (Paperback) – Routledge
Description: By James Wierzbicki. Film Music: A History explains the development of film music by considering large-scale aesthetic trends and structural developments alongside socioeconomic, technological, cultural, and philosophical circumstances.
The book&rsquo;s four large...
Categories: Movie Music, Film Studies, Music